


some things you just can't refuse

by starlight_sugar



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - White Collar Fusion, Gen, vague undertones of Tryst/Aava/Leenik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-28 23:12:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17191982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: “No, no, Sy, hear me out.” Aava leans in. “Hypothetically, where do I get a copy of the paperwork I would need to take on a CI?”





	some things you just can't refuse

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above.

Aava has her gun up as she steps into the warehouse. She knows she doesn’t need to, knows this place like the back of her hand and exactly where she should go, but it’s good to be prepared anything.

“FBI,” she calls, not really trying to project her voice. The echo bounces around the warehouse. “Come out where I can see you. Hands up.”

“I’ll put my hands wherever you want them,” a voice calls back. It’s weak, like he’s making the joke because he thinks she’s expecting it.

Aava holsters her gun. “And if I want them in the air?”

Tryst Valentine, escaped fucking convict, leans out from behind a pillar. “You gonna shoot me, Agent Arek?”

“You gonna give me a reason to?”

“I hope not. C’mere.”

Aava sighs, but she goes over to where he’s sitting against the pillar and sinks down next to him, sitting on her hands. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Tryst gives her a wan smile. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh, you know. Solving crimes, chasing down escaped cons. The usual.” She cuts her eyes over to him, assessing. “How about you?”

“You heard from Leenik lately?”

She frowns. She has never visited Tryst during his sentence - it’s inappropriate for agents to fraternize with the criminals they catch - but she and Leenik get coffee once a week. Except. “Not in a couple weeks.”

Tryst thumps his head against the pillar behind him. “That’s what I thought.”

“Hasn’t he been visiting you?”

“Not in a couple weeks.”

“So you broke out of state prison to try and find him?”

“It’s Leenik,” Tryst says, like that makes absolute sense.

The problem is, it does make absolute sense. Leenik is an art forger, just like Tryst is, but he didn’t get caught in their job that went south. And afterwards, he and Aava had become friends, and Aava was… well, she was sort of taken with him. He’s sweet, and he’s smart, and he’s excitable. Aava understands why Tryst refused to give him up for a shorter sentence. Aava understands a lot about Tryst, because of Leenik.

“They’re going to put you away for a long time for this,” Aava says, as gently as she can. “This isn’t the kind of thing that you come back from. Forgery is a lot less of a problem than a prison break.”

“I couldn’t find him.” Tryst’s head lolls from side to side, and Aava sighs and lowers her shoulder. His head plops onto it. They haven’t had a lot of in person interaction, not outside of the investigation and hearings and the like, but she knows Leenik loves him. That counts for a lot. “I looked everywhere.”

“I’m looking too.”

“You don’t know all the everywheres that I do.”

“And you didn’t have a lot of time to look everywhere.”

“I don’t want to go back,” Tryst says, barely above a whisper. Aava’s heart clenches. “I don’t- Aava, I can’t go back to prison not knowing what happened to him. He’s not going to be able to visit me when I go back, I know the kind of sentence I’m going to get.”

Aava lifts a hand to stroke through his hair. “I can’t help you.”

“Can you find some way-”

“You can’t ask me to let you go.”

“Never,” Tryst says quickly. “I would rather have you in the FBI, because that means one of us can keep looking for him.”

Aava thinks about it, carefully. It’s true that she can’t do much - definitely can’t let Tryst go, definitely can’t keep him a secret. That’ll end badly for the both of them. But there are other things she can do, visitations and work releases and - hm.

“I’ll figure something out,” Aava says, slowly. “But I need to arrest you again.”

“Looking for a reason to hold my hand?”

“Looking for a reason to tie you up,” Aava answers tartly.

Tryst laughs, sounding a little more like himself. “Well, if the lady insists…”

“The law insists.”

“What you say matters more to me than the law,” Tryst says, with finality. The scary thing is, Aava’s pretty sure that he means it.

 

#

 

“Hypothetically,” Aava says.

Synox groans. “No, no, wherever this is going-”

“No, no, Sy, hear me out.” Aava leans in. “Hypothetically, where do I get a copy of the paperwork I would need to take on a CI?”

Synox narrows his eyes at her. Aava only gives him the most blank, professional look she can manage, like that’s going to prevent him from realizing that she has a plan of some kind.

“Who,” he says at last, which is promising, if she plays her cards right.

“Professional forger. Served most of his sentence.”

“You trust this forger?”

“I think he’s competent, and I think he’s going to be able to do his job.”

“That wasn’t a yes.”

“You don’t want me to say yes,” Aava says, which is true. It also masks the fact that her answer is a resounding, bone-deep yes.

“Agent Arek, you’re one of the best agents we have.”

She keeps her face impassive. “I’m aware, sir.”

Synox snorts. “No, Aava, I don’t think you are. You’re one of the only people where I don’t care if you say you trust this CI with your bleeding heart. If you say that, I will assume that the guy deserves it and give you the paperwork anyways. You’re asking because it’ll make you better at this job.”

“I’m asking because I want this CI to work with me.”

“Reason enough for me,” Synox says. “Paperwork will be on your desk tomorrow morning, and it’ll be back on mine by the time you leave for the day.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You and Mister Valentine had better solve a lot of cases for me.”

Aava finally lets herself smile. Of course Synox would know that it’s Tryst. The fact that he trusts her means a lot more when she knows the depth of that trust. “We wouldn’t do anything less, Sy.”

“Good,” Synox says. “Because I’m expecting a lot from you.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Aava says mildly, and Synox grins at her.

 

#

 

Tryst walks out of the prison gates and directly into Aava’s arm, burying his nose in her hair as he does. “Thank you,” he says, quiet against her ear. “Thank you, thank-”

“Uh,” Fentara says, with all of the grace of a highly trained new agent. “Should I do something about this?”

Aava waves her off, with the hand that isn’t currently rubbing between Tryst’s shoulder blades. “We’ll give him a minute.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it were anyone other than him, I’d let you tase him.”

Fentara’s eyes flick up and down Tryst as he steps back. She doesn’t look impressed, which is one of Aava’s favorite things about Fentara. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“Boss?” Tryst repeats. “Agent Arek, you mean to tell me you’re supervising this young lady?”

“Don’t get me wrong, she could knock you on your ass in a heartbeat,” Aava says. This is the wrong thing to say, judging by the weird look on Tryst’s face. “And you are barking up the wrong tree by even looking at her, so-”

“Ah.” Tryst’s face clears. “Not that I was interested to begin with, but-”

“I can tase you even if she doesn’t ask me to,” Fentara says. “It might be impolite, but-”

“But I trust Agent Ren’s judgment.” Aava arches an eyebrow at Tryst, who’s giving her this weird, sort of gross soft smile. “Please remember that I’m supervising you, Mister Valentine. So anything beyond professional courtesy-”

“Oh, professional courtesy,” Tryst says glibly. “Yeah, I know all about that. And you can tell me all about it later, but last week when I broke out was the first time I had food other than prison food in a very long time, so if I could get some more good food-”

“Has your ankle bracelet been outfitted yet?”

Tryst leans down and draws up the left leg of his pants to reveal a standard issue ankle bracelet, with a light blinking green. “Newest accessory, all the models are clamoring over it.”

“They explain to you how that works?”

“I have to be within a two mile radius of the office at all times, unless I’m with you, and that includes where I’ll be living,” Tryst says dutifully. “Now, what does this all mean for me being able to eat?”

Aava smirks. “It means we’re getting dinner together.”

Tryst gasps, putting a dramatic hand to his chest. “But Agent Arek, what about your agent in training?”

“Agent Ren has other plans.”

“Got a date with a girl,” Fentara says. “And I’m not interested in spending any more time with your clown ass outside of work hours.”

“Wow,” Tryst says. “You really are training her, aren’t you? She sounds exactly like you.”

“The way I raised her,” Aava says dryly. “Let’s go.”

 

#

 

“This isn’t a restaurant,” Tryst says as they pull up to the high-rise. “Not that I’m complaining about whatever’s going on here, but seriously, I wasn’t-”

“Trystan,” Aava sighs. They let Fentara out a few minutes ago, and Aava said something about needing to make one more stop. “You know where we are.”

Tryst looks out the window, eyes moving up and down. She can tell the exact moment he realizes where they are, because his mouth forms a perfect O. “This- have you-”

“I started stopping by every day two weeks ago, just to see.” Aava puts the car in park and leans forward, resting her chin on the steering wheel. “And then twice a day. Nothing ever changes or moves. He hasn’t been here in a while.”

“Does it look like there was a struggle?”

“Not at all.”

“He wouldn’t leave,” Tryst says, hovering somewhere between desperation and certainty. “Not without telling someone. You, or me, or- or the other contacts he has, or-”

“I know.” She lifts a hand without looking to stroke it down his shoulder, and he goes quiet. “I know he wouldn’t.”

“Is Tony still there?”

“The pit bull? He hasn’t been in the apartment, and I haven’t found him boarded anywhere.”

“God, Leenik,” Tryst murmurs. He reaches up and takes Aava’s hand absently, tangling their fingers together, and she lets him. “Why did you bring me here? To look for evidence?”

“Actually,” Aava says, “it’s because I checked with the landlord and rent is paid up for a couple months. And we are a cool 1.85 miles southeast of the FBI office, and this is a lot nicer than the place they were looking at putting you up.”

Tryst squeezes her hand. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, help me find him.”

“I will. I have resources you don’t have.”

Tryst and Leenik were part of a group. Aava knows this. Aava knows that he has people on his side that she doesn’t know about, that she’ll never really get to meet. She didn’t know how to get in touch with them. And sure, having Tryst out of prison will mean that she has someone else to help her at work, but more than that it means that she has more lines connecting her to Leenik. More ways to get him back.

“Okay,” Aava says softly. “We’re gonna figure this out. But now, let’s get you some real dinner. Anything you want.”

“The FBI will pay for anything I want?”

“No, but depending on what you want, I might.” She finally looks over at him, and he grins at her, all soft and mushy. “Oh, shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Tryst says, looking as shit-eating and stupidly fond as he always does. “Take me wherever, I’m not picky.”

“Oh, you’re not picky,” Aava mutters, and starts the car. “Whatever you say, Valentine.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr and Twitter @waveridden!


End file.
